Aptoide CEO Alvaro Pinto on creating a more social app store experience

Based in Lisbon, Aptoide is an alternative app store where anyone can create a channel and share what they’ve been downloading with family, friends, and followers in their social timeline. Aptoide CEO Alvaro Pinto says he co-founded the company because he wanted to create a more social app store experience, rather than settle for the algorithmic method other popular app stores use.

“In the Android ecosystem, there is space for different app stores, and different way to discover content,” Pinto says, adding that he’s interested in making Aptoide useful not only for end-users, but also for developers and publishers. Today, Aptoide has a direct relationship with over 12,000 developers and reaches almost 1 million apps in the platform—and Pinto’s global ambition is only continuing to grow. “We want to offer users across the globe a different way to find and discover content,” he says. “That’s the main purpose for us.”